Right & Wrong

In the last couple of days the topic of capital punishment has come up a few times, so I figured it was time to write about it.

I am not a person who believes in moral absolutes. Some people say "Killing is wrong, period." I completely disagree. There are some people who deserve to die, and there are sometimes when we have the right to kill. I don't necessarily mean in a legal sense (though that is true as well), but I mean in a moral sense. And I think that deep down, most people would agree with me. I don't think I know anyone who hears a story about a mother who kills a man for molesting her daughter and thinks "That woman was just wrong." or "She is going to hell." We identify with that woman, we understand why she did it, and most of us say we would have done the same thing...if we had the courage. Now sure, some of us realize that it may not have been the best decision, because she might go to jail now and then her daughter will have to grow up with out her, etc. But we don't think she was wrong. And if she does go to jail, we'll be pissed. But if the child molester had killed the little girl, or even her mom, it would be a whole different story. And that's your proof: no moral absolutes.

But that doesn't mean that capital punishment is right....or does it? Personally my answer is yes, if you're sure you're killing the right person. And therein lies the problem. In most cases, we don't know. Sometimes we do, for example: Ted Bundy. Other times we don't. We know we've convicted the wrong people hundreds of time, we can't be sure we didn't execute any of them. But, as most of you know, my objections to capital punishment are not moral, they are procedural and economical.

We discussed the death penalty in class the other day. The thing I found most interesting is that all the examples of heinous crimes worth of execution that the students gave were what we would call "blue collar crimes." That's another problem I have. What about white collar criminals? If we're going to execute people, we should start with the rich white men (we certainly have a few to spare). When a corporation poisons an entire town by dumping chemicals and kids die of leukemia, their CEO should be charged with murder and he should be executed.

So, that's my two cents for now...there would be more, but I'm hungry!